Symbian's Open Source Gambit Ups Stakes In Mobile OS War
30 Jun 2008 - 09:02:11

By J. Nicholas Hoover Tue Jun 24, 6:20 PM ET When Nokia announced Tuesday morning that it would not only buy the rest of the Symbian mobile operating system, but also make it available for free and eventually it under the Eclipse Public License, there's no doubt competitors took note. Despite a smattering of applause from the camps, there's no indication that any are ready to cede even more market share to the market leader. "What it really means is that we're at an early stage of a full scale war for becoming the next development platform for mobile devices," Jim Zemlin, who runs the Linux Foundation, said in an interview. "This stuff tends to winnow out into a few winners. Symbian is upping the stakes, offering its for free in order to draw more people into their alliance. These alliances are often self amplifying." If nothing else, Nokia's moves to make Symbian a free and open mobile should put pressure on the company's competitors to keep innovating and giving customers -- device manufacturers, consumers, and carriers alike -- what they want. Nokia that it aims to make Symbian -- already the top operating system -- the "most widely used platform on the planet." For its part, Microsoft is standing firm. Unlike Nokia's strategy for Symbian, Microsoft Windows Mobile remains a proprietary mobile operating system that costs money. It costs to put Windows Mobile on a smartphone, and Windows Mobile can't just be altered willy nilly. However, in exchange, Micr...

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